Frontier Nursing University (FNU) was proud to award 800 graduate degrees at the 2018 commencement ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 20.

Since October 2017, more than 800 nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners have successfully completed a distance education program through FNU. The new graduates represent 47 states and three countries. 45 of this year’s graduates are from FNU’s home state of Kentucky.

More than 1800 guests and friends of FNU gathered for the commencement activities. We were thrilled to celebrate commencement with over 200 of these new graduates, along with their family and friends.

Delivering the commencement address was Holly Powell Kennedy, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, Helen Varney Professor of Midwifery at the Yale School of Nursing. Dr. Kennedy received her certificate for nurse-midwifery from Frontier, and now is an internationally known midwifery researcher and leader. She was the recipient of Frontier Nursing University’s alumni award for Distinguished Service to Society in 2012.

Kennedy spoke about how her experience as an intern and nurse practitioner with the Frontier Nursing Service inspired her to become a nurse-midwife. She charged the graduates to know their community, be innovative and disciplined, believe in their patients and take care of themselves as they provide care to so many others.

FNU also conferred an honorary doctorate to Edith “Edie” Baldwin Wonnell, CNM. Edith was presented with the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, for her development of freestanding birth centers and her extraordinary life-long dedication to the profession.

FNU confers honorary doctorate to Edith Baldwin Wonnell, CNM

Edith answered her call to nursing and midwifery by establishing a comprehensive family centered maternity service in the 1960s and two freestanding birth centers in the 1970s. Her entrepreneurial model in those settings has played a major role in offering an alternative to the not-for-profit birth center model. Well-deserving of Doctor of Humane Letters, Edith pioneered and beautifully modeled the mission of the nurse-midwifery program of Frontier Nursing University.

The mission of FNU is to provide accessible nurse-midwifery and nurse practitioner education to prepare competent, entrepreneurial, ethical, and compassionate leaders in primary care to serve all individuals with an emphasis on women and families in diverse, rural, and underserved populations. FNU offers graduate Nurse-Midwifery and Nurse-Practitioner distance education programs that can be pursued full- or part-time with the student’s home community serving as the classroom. Degrees and options offered include Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Post-Graduate Certificates. To learn more about FNU and the programs and degrees offered, please visit Frontier.edu.